Lakeland University graduate returns to assistant coach former team
SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (BVM) — Lakeland University’s new women’s wrestling graduate assistant coach, Madison Ruckdashel, hopes to further grow and improve the program she helped shape as an athlete.
22-year-old, Madison Ruckdashel, started wrestling in first grade.
“My dad was the coach for middle school and I have a brother that’s pretty close to my age,” Ruckdashel said. “I just kind of grew up on that and enjoyed wrestling around and I wanted to continue it.”
Her brother, Garrett Ruckdashel, wrestles for the University of Wisconsin – Platteville, where her father also wrestled.
Being a female wrestler brought its own challenges.
“It was hard sometimes being like an outcast,” Ruckdashel said. “You wanted to try to relate to your teammates, but in some ways you just couldn’t. Some people accepted you and some people didn’t.”
“It was also challenging, as I got older, boys started to get stronger. That was hard to wrap my head around. It made me doubt myself a couple of times.”
In high school, Ruckdashel was a four time varsity letter winner in wrestling and a three time girls state champion. She was also wrestling team captain for two years.
Some advice her brother and father had is, “Have fun with wrestling,” Ruckdashel said. “Enjoy these experiences while I have them and wrestle while I can because one day I won’t have this anymore.”
Ruckdashel transferred from the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater to Lakeland in 2018 to join the first women’s wrestling team in the state.
“It was really inspiring because it felt like I finally made it,” Ruckdashel said. “All the struggles I went through growing up…felt like it was all worth it because I was finally wrestling at a college level, something I dreamed about when I was a little kid. Just to make it a reality was really cool.”
Ruckdashel had the first-ever victory in the program’s history at the Adrian (Mich.) Open in 2018-2019. Another highlight in her career was earning All-American honors at the National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships in 2020.
Ruckdashel completed her undergraduate degree in psychology and is continuing her education at Lakeland to earn a masters in counseling.
Her decision to stay has led to the opportunity to be the graduate assistant coach for the women’s team.
Not only has her own time on the mat prepared her for this role, but Ruckdashel has had experiences off the mat too.
She has been a volunteer coach, helped out at different wrestling camps, and has been a WIAA high school wrestling official since 2016.
“One summer my brother and I ran a summer camp together,” Ruckdashel said. “We had like 20 kids come to that weekly throughout the summer.”
“Last year, I went back to New London (Wis.), to my hometown. We had an all girls tournament there and I got to be a clinician for it before the tournament started. It was pretty cool to be teaching little girls in my hometown gym.”
Things have been going well for Ruckdashel in her new position.
“It has definitely been weird because we haven’t been able to practice properly, but it has been fun being able to be on the recruiting side of things and being able to have a say as to where the program goes more,” Ruckdashel said. “What I put into it, is what we are going to get out of this and I’m able to put my skills into it to build a successful team.”
In her own opinion and to those who look at what she has accomplished, wrestling is everything to her.
“This is pretty much my life,” Ruckdashel said.
Even though it has been her life up to this point. Ruckdashel has goals for her professional career and what she wants to do with her degree as well as some she still wants to accomplish in wrestling.
“For Lakeland…before I leave, I want it to have like 25 to 30 girls on the team consistently,” Ruckdashel said. “Wrestling wise, I hope to All-American again. In the future…I want to be a school counselor and I want to have a girls wrestling team in my high school.”
